McDowell scorches through summer

A simple cameo. Walking from the 10th tee during the Boys Home Internationals at Portmarock in early August, one of the Irish players passed by a team-mate who was on the edge of the ninth green. "Did you hear about McDowell? Crazy stuff, isn't it?" asked the awe-struck teenager, without waiting for a response.

The remark followed news of Graeme McDowell's opening round 63 (equalling the course record) in the first round of the European amateur championship at Murhof, Austria. McDowell didn't go on to win that tournament - he finished runner-up - but, in a quite remarkable summer, it was one of the few events to escape the 21-year-old's clutches.

McDowell came back from his first year of studies (and golf!) at the University of Alabama like an unpolished diamond dispatched to the jewellers only to return as an eye-catching sparkler. In a three-month spell during the summer, he won no fewer than six tournaments. The highlight, unquestionably, was the Irish close championship - fittingly enough at Royal Portrush - but the Rathmore clubman also won the Irish and Leinster youths', the World Universities championship, the South of Ireland and, prior to his return home, a collegiate tournament in Atlanta, Georgia.

Blessed with a beautifully simple swing, and a self-assuredness honed in the States, McDowell was at a loss to pinpoint any particular reason for his unstoppable run of form. "Maybe it is because I'm playing with such confidence. The big key is not seeing any bad shots. In the past, when under pressure, I'd be inclined to picture a bad shot, say, going into a bunker. Now, all I see is the flag."

McDowell clicked up a gear this past summer, but so too did another northerner, Alison Coffey, who finally took the Irish women's close title which had frustratingly eluded her in recent years. Although disappointed not to make the Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup team - she was first reserve - Coffey was on the team that finished third in the world team championship in Berlin and was the dominant player on the domestic front.

Not only did she take a third successive Ulster title, but the Belfast-based engineer led the qualifying in the Irish close (to take the Leitrim Cup) and then beat Suzanne O'Brien in the matchplay final.